


Taming The Magic

by AzureM



Category: Birdtale (Undertale AU), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, May Pick Up Later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 08:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10635996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzureM/pseuds/AzureM
Summary: This is an idea that I had while working on my other fan fiction. It's only 3 chapters, but I've run out of steam on it. When I'm finished with my current work, The New Recruit, I may pick this one back up. It may give you guys some ideas to write about, as well. =) Happy short reading!





	1. Chapter 1

‘Breathe in, breathe out. Focus your mana into your hands, and imagine what you want to summon’ The teacher’s words rang in her head. With palms facing outwards, she touched her thumbs and index fingers together to form a triangle. As the digits connected, a faint glow enveloped her body and congealed in the middle of her hand tattoos, connecting the 4 fingers together with a white wispy line. Her rune tattoos glowed more brightly and the mana started to pour into the area between her fingers, creating a ball of energy.

The air around her started to crackle with the energy her body was projecting, and she closed her eyes to focus on the image of a graceful phoenix. Her mana was pouring out too quickly, draining her body of breath, “No…!” She tried to focus on the image more, but was thrown back as the magic dissipated with a bang. She lay still for a moment more, tears flooding her eyes as she stared at the dusk sky. She could see the flying machines swirl several miles above her, teasing her for being a Groundwalker. Slamming her fists into the ground, the frail human cried out to no one.

About an hour passed before she finally got up, her 12-year old body recovered enough to walk again, and she made her way to her hovel of a home. It was small, but she didn’t need it for anyone but herself. Locking the door behind her, she lay on the bed and made a small motion with her hand as if opening a window. The screen above her bed opened up and revealed a beautiful night sky with a full moon showing itself above her lonely island’s horizon. She had found this place after an accident, robbing herself of most of her magic after colliding with a magic crystal from one of the flying machines.

She closed her silver gray eyes, only to find herself going back to her memories.

\---

“Adelle, don’t go too far now!” Her mother chided her in front of their home, hanging the laundry to dry as the spring breezes swept through the skyloft city. Since the monsters had emerged from the ground, they wanted a place to live where they could be free. Agreeing with the remaining few mages of humanity, large chunks of land were lifted into the air and were left alone by those who didn’t like the monsters. Eventually, some humans wished to mingle with them, and both races created flying machines that could ferry many people between the skyloft cities and the ground cities. Most of the contraptions resembled futuristic planes and freighters, while others looked like animals.

“I won’t, Momma!” Adelle smiled and waved, flapping her arms like a bird as she ran around the perimeter of their home. They didn’t live very far from the edge, and Adelle would go there to watch the machines whizz around and to watch the flying monsters go about their business.

“Don’t forget your bracelet!” 

“I have it on!” The little girl called out and waved the oversized bracelet on her right wrist above her head. Adelle was told to never take it off, as it would remove her ability to summon creatures. Magic wasn’t as rare as humanity thought before the monsters arrived, the mages were just in hiding due to fear. Adelle moved towards the edge of the land island she lived on, and sat down to watch the usual buses and machines. She’d always arrived 5 minutes before a shuttle zoomed past her island, and it was so close that she could see the individual people inside of it.

She eyed the runes on her hands, freshly tattooed on by her mage teacher. The tattoo on her right hand was 4 small circles connected by one big circle. Each small circle was pointed in a cardinal direction, with north at the top by her middle finger, and between the small circles were rune markings. She couldn’t read them, but was told that they helped stabilize her summoning. The left hand tattoo was just a single rune that looked like a basic trident, if you removed the curves in the forks and just left them straight.

‘Summoning isn’t that easy for everyone,’ her teacher had said as Adelle started to fall behind in class, ‘Try using these, and they will protect you and your magic from harm.’ Her mother then pulled her out of the class and tried to help her learn on her own, but it was fruitless. Adelle clenched both of her fists and put them out in front of her in the form of a triangle, “I summon…a large bird…!” The mana flared within her, but didn’t produce anything. She tried again and again, but to no avail.

“Nice try, Groundwalker!” A jeering laugh rang out near her, and she knew who it was without really turning around. Adelle lowered her arms and glanced over her shoulder.

“What do you want, Barry?”

“Your bracelet, since you don’t really need it.” A boy older than her, around 15, grabbed her shoulder and forced her around while reaching for her oversized bracelet. He latched on and she tried to pull away.

“N-no! Stop it, you don’t need it!” He picked her up and started walking towards the edge, a cruel smile on his lips.

“Yeah, I do. I need more magic to summon more powerful creatures!” He grinned, revealing his fangs and ruffled his tiny wings. Barry may be a sparrow monster-kind, but Adelle saw him as a true monster. He shook her by the bracelet he was holding as he held her over the edge, and it slipped from his grip, sending her into the yawning sky below. Time slowed as she reached for the edge of the island and missed, his face turning from joy to shock. Her blood rushed to her ears and she saw the incoming shuttle zooming around the island, a minute later than usual. Trying to dodge it, her right arm swung out by momentum and connected with the large crystal on the shuttle’s front part of the roof, the power source. Gem hit crystal and Adelle’s body was ravaged by pain, as she felt the crystal try to absorb all of her lifeforce.

“Adelle…!” She barely heard her mother cry out as time caught up with Adelle, the shuttle speeding off as if nothing happened and her semi-unconscious body falling downwards into darkness.

\---

She woke up in a sweat, her long light brown hair clinging to her body as the sun started to peek into the sunroof she had kept open that night. She didn’t move for a while, until she brought her right wrist into view, looking at the bracelet closely. It was of sterling silver, and only had one large sapphire gem embedded into its center, heavily cracked and flickering like a nightlight. Finally deciding to get up, Adelle stretched and went back outside to try summoning again. She didn’t count the times that the sun rose since she had fallen to this small, lonely island. She wasn’t too far from the skyloft cities above her, but no one could really see this place until they were a mile away.

‘Breathe in, breathe out. Focus your mana into your hands, and imagine what you want to summon’ The words rang in her head again. She wanted to go home, she wanted to see her mother…she wanted to punch Barry in the face. The tattoos started glowing again and the magic starting forming in her hands.

“I’M PRETTY SURE THAT MAGES ARE SUPPOSED TO CAST SPELLS WITH BOTH HANDS TOGETHER.” A voice cut through her concentration, sending her backwards again as the magic dispels. Hitting her head on something hard, she winced and curled up into a ball, clicking her tongue and rendering her speechless for a little bit.

“Geez, I think you made them speechless.” Another voice joined in, a little softer than the first one. After her vision cleared, she looked up at whatever she hit and sees 2 skeletal bodies staring down at her, one with concern and the other one looking bored.

“Who are you…?!” She sprang up and tucked her right wrist behind her back.

“GREETINGS, LITTLE HUMAN! MY NAME IS PAPYRUS AND THIS IS MY BROTHER, SANS. WE WERE LEASURELY FLYING AROUND WHEN WE SAW THIS LITTLE PLACE AND DECIDED TO SEE WHAT WAS ON IT. WE FOUND YOU!” Papyrus proclaimed, putting a hand on his chest as if presenting himself in front of an audience. He stood over her at 6’1”, wearing a black skinsuit covered by blue shorts and a white chestplate. Billowing at his back was an orange cloak that covered a pair of white wings and a white tail, and orange goggles dangled around his neck.

“You…you’re a flying monster, right?” Adelle asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked up from her 5’6” height.

“SPOT ON!” He gave a thumbs-up to her with a large smile on his face. The shorter one, Sans, sighed and looked at her little hovel.

“You’re not living there, are you?” He rubbed the sides of his yellow-lensed goggles, the blue strap color matching his hooded jacket and shorts. A lighter blue turtleneck was seen from under the jacket and the same colored socks were covering his feet, topped by a dark blue pair of clawed slippers. The slippers didn’t give him any trouble as he took a few steps towards her home, adjusting his midnight blue wings and tail.

“Yeah, that’s my home.” Adelle rubbed her arms, due to the brisk cold breeze that whipped around them.

“Why?” Sans looked back at her, his white eyes settling on her.

“Because…I fell from up there.” She pointed with her right hand towards the nearest skyloft city. Sans and Papyrus followed her hand.

“THAT’S A LONG WAY FOR YOU, YOUNG HUMAN. ARE YOU ALRIGHT? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?” Papyrus looked down at her. She shrugged and felt a skeletal hand upon her right wrist. Flinching away, she saw Sans with an outstretched hand.

“Should’ve asked first…May I see?” He motioned to the bracelet. Adelle rubbed it lightly, “I’ve seen a quite a few humans wear them, and I’ve always wondered what they were.”

“…my mana bracelet…” She shook her head and backed away. Sans shrugged and walked back to his brother.

“Alright.” He spread his wings and took off, “We explored enough, Pap. Let’s go home.” Without waiting for an answer, Sans flew upwards towards the furthest skyloft city Adelle could see. Papyrus gave a small wave to Adelle and took off as well, following his brother. 

The day passed as it usually did after that. Adelle tried doing different things with her hands, but the magic always blew up in her face whenever she got ready to cast the spell. She took a deep breath and tried the hand triangle again…maybe this time it’ll work. She gathered enough mana around her and slowly started to chant the spell she wanted to cast, the wisps forming around her hands and her tattoos starting to brighten. Adelle concentrated on the words she was saying and began to see a large bird-like shape begin to form in front of her, but she got too excited and mispronounced a word, causing the spell to backfire horrendously. Thrown backwards yet again a few more feet, she hit the ground with a thud, her right arm connecting with the rock beneath her. She blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Time had passed, but she didn’t bother to count it. Adelle’s hair grew longer, and her body was larger than the clothes she had on when she fell. Groundwalker…She gave up on trying to summon a magic beast to help her fly home. She couldn’t gather enough energy or mana to even try. What little magic she could use, she turned it downwards into the island to make fertile land and some fresh water in a little hole she dug. She wore the bracelet, still oversized compared to her body, but she worked the small field instead of looking to the sky above her. No one had even tried to look for her, not even her mother or father.

Groundwalker.

What used to be an insult was now her title. Adelle took a break from picking the small berries in her little field to look at the silver bracelet, the sapphire completely cracked in half and unable to hold a magical charge. When she did look up at the sky, she could see the skyloft cities thriving and growing larger as more humans and monsters started living together. She hadn’t even seen those two skeleton bird brothers, but still heard the voices in her head and had many one-sided conversations with them. Laying down on the edge of her home, she looked down and saw a field of green and brown sprawl out beneath her.

She’d entertained the idea of suicide, to end this solitude that was forced onto her. She tried everything to get someone’s attention, from creating a small mage light to firing off a large firework above her island at night. All the firework did was blend in with the skyloft city noises, and not a single car glanced in that direction. 

Giving up hope and giving up on help, she focused back on her work of surviving as long as possible. The sun rose and set many times before she heard the voices again.

“TINY HUMAN! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!” She didn’t flinch or turn around, responding as she always did.

“Oh, nothing really happened. My winged friend, what’s the news of the world beyond my reach?”

“WHA…YOU NEED HELP!”

“Yes, as do we all. Has Lord Staccatos determined that the mages should be on the council, or has humanity finally made peace with all of monsterkind?” She chuckled to herself, making up the names as she continued her one-sided conversation.

“HUMAN, YOU ARE SPEAKING NONSENSE!” Two hands on her shoulders ripped her from her thoughts, turning her around and making her face the larger of the two skeleton bird brothers, “YOU NEED HELP!”

“…!” Adelle instantly flushed and tried to back away, “No…I don’t really need help! I just…” Her voice hitched and tears came pouring from her eyes, “I need someone to talk to…!” Dropping whatever was in her hands, she clung to the skeleton monster and wept into his chest plate, practically falling to the ground with relief that someone was here.

“I’M HERE FOR YOU…THERE, THERE…” He patted her head and she continued to cry, his wings covering her and holding her close, “HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE…?”

“I…I don’t know…maybe a year…?” She hiccupped, rubbing her eyes and nose.

“…” He didn’t say anything and picked her up, one arm under her legs and the other beneath her shoulders, “I’M TAKING YOU TO MY HOME. YOU CAN RECOVER THERE, AND DON’T WORRY ABOUT THIS PLACE. WE’LL COME BACK TO PICK UP YOUR THINGS WHEN YOU’RE READY. IT WAS VERY HARD TO FIND YOUR ISLAND; IT KEPT MOVING AROUND!” Without saying anything else, he launched into the air while holding her close. Adelle was rendered speechless, the view was so much better on the wing, and the wind felt powerful. She felt every wingbeat bring her closer to his home, ducking and dodging around obstacles before softly landing on a patch of green grass in front of a 2-story home. The front door was wrapped in a soft orange glow and opened by itself as he walked in with her before setting her down on the couch.

“Paps, you’re home…?” The shorter brother stood on the second floor overlooking the living room, and he stared down at Adelle. The real Sans, she realized with a start, not her made-up one.

“YES, BROTHER, AND I BRING COMPANY LONG OVERDUE. THIS IS THE TINY HUMAN WE FOUND A WHILE AGO!” Papyrus covered her with a blanket, “SHE WILL BE RESTING HERE UNTIL SHE’S BETTER.”

“Ah, Paps…maybe that’s not a good idea…? She is a mage, after all.” Sans didn’t take his eyes off of her.

“Not…not anymore…” She started, but grew quiet again.

“Listen, dove. No one ‘quits’ being a mage. Either you have magic, or you don’t.” His eyes narrowed. Adelle only raised her right wrist to reveal the broken sapphire gem. His eyes seemed to disappear into the darkness of his eyesockets, not saying anything else.

“No magic makes me a Groundwalker.”

“THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN. IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE BAD?” Papyrus scratched his head, going towards the kitchen for something.

“…like I said…you don’t just quit being a mage…” Sans goes back into the room he walked out from, supposedly his bedroom. Papyrus comes back from the kitchen with a glass of water and handing it to Adelle.

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT MY BROTHER. HE’LL COME TO LIKE YOU EVENTUALLY! HE’S A REALLY COOL BRO.” He smiled at her and sat next to her on the floor, making sure that she was alright.

“Why does he not like mages?”

“BECAUSE ALL OF US MONSTERS WERE FORCED OUT OF THE SKIES AND UNDER A MOUNTAIN BY MAGES. IT WAS TERRIBLE! WE MADE OUR WAY BACK UP TO THE SURFACE, THOUGH, AND WE WERE ABLE TO BE FRIENDS WITH HUMANITY AGAIN!”

“That’s good…I think…”

“YOU CAN STAY HERE UNTIL YOUR MAGIC HAS REPLENISHED ITSELF! I’LL PROVIDE THE COOKING AND TAKE CARE OF YOU WHEN YOU NEED IT! JUST REMEMBER THAT MAGIC COMES FROM WITHIN YOURSELF, NOT FROM WHAT ANYONE SAYS ABOUT YOU!” He takes her empty water glass and goes back into the kitchen. Adelle smiles and wraps herself up tighter in the blanket, sleep slowly starting to take hold.

\---

The world around her swirled in a furious whirlwind, debris flying everywhere and the sun was soaked in a deep red color. Adelle cried out for help, but her voice echoed around her and no one was able to hear her.

“Hey, Groundwalker!” Barry landed in front of her, his once-small wings grown into large vicious bat wings and his canines protruding from his mouth. His eyes turned a sickly-yellow and red, watching her every move, “Give me your bracelet!” A wicked clawed hand reached out and tore it off of her wrist, breaking the bracelet and her arm in the process.

“No…!” Adelle’s voice became distorted, and Barry laughed as he threw her off of the island into a pit of tar. She hit the ground with a thud and the tar clung to her skin, the smell of flesh penetrating her senses.

\---

“HUMAN, WAKE UP! IT’S JUST A BAD DREAM!” Papyrus’ voice woke her from the nightmare, that fell world. She panted and clung to his arm as he held her up on the couch.

“Everything okay, Pap?” A sleepy-voiced Sans asked from above her vision. Papyrus didn’t answer, but no other question was given.

“IT’S OKAY, HUMAN. WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO ON A MIDNIGHT FLIGHT?” Adelle’s breathing slowed down and she could only nod, still holding onto his arm. He smiled at her and picked her up again, wrapping the blanket around her, “SANS, COMING WITH? THE LITTLE MAGE WOULD LIKE TO GO FOR A SMALL FLIGHT.”

“Eh…sure…” Sans shrugged.


	3. Chapter 3

Sans shrugged and opened the door for the three of them, closing it behind himself. Papyrus took off first, holding Adelle gently in his arms, and Sans followed closely behind. Adelle looked around and enjoyed the sight of the clear night sky, previously blocked by the skyloft city traffic and other islands. There were no clouds to darken the sky and the moon was full again, shedding light onto the landscapes below. She caught Sans eye and he gave her a hard look.

“Sans…I know you don’t trust me.” She called out, not breaking the eye contact. He seemed a little taken back.

“…I don’t trust mages.” was all he said in reply.

“Because they locked you all underground, I understand. We’re a cruel race of humans. If I was to be dropped, I wouldn’t expect either of you to fly after to catch me.” She said bluntly, “I don’t think any monster would. Not even a human with a flying machine. We’re selfish by nature, and nothing will really change that.”

“Kid, that’s not…”

“Yes, it is.” Adelle interrupted and glowered at Sans, who had moved closer to fly almost right under her, “It is what you meant. I know I’m not wanted in your house, or any house.”

“HUMAN, THAT’S NOT TRUE. YOUR MOTHER DOES MISS YOU, AND YOUR FATHER WANTS TO FIND YOU.” Papyrus looked down at her, the night wind passing over his wings silently.

“He’s right. Your mom hasn’t stopped looking, and your dad tried to get the police to look for you…” Sans nodded. They both glided up to the edge of a skyloft city, gently putting her down. Adelle found herself standing on the same edge she fell from, marked by a small cross made of wooden sticks. Papyrus took her hand and started leading her to a house not too far off, supporting her as her legs turned to jelly at the realization.

“Momma…?” Standing outside the house was a familiar woman that was holding a lantern as if standing guard. Adelle started running, the blanket around her forgotten as her hands raised up in front of her, crashing into the woman and crying hard into her skirt.

“Adelle! My little girl…!” Her mother cried out and held Adelle close.


End file.
